A Walnut Creek police officer is accused of attacking a woman with a baseball bat in what appears to be a random assault that happened in the middle of the night in Richmond.

"We had already gone to bed and started hearing a thumping banging noise," said Richmond resident Clarus Culver.

Culver lives across the street from where a Walnut Creek police officer was arrested for attacking a woman and her car with a baseball bat.

"At least one or two police officers had already arrived and they were starting to talk to the man in the car, and then just moments later, the woman ran up the street yelling that he had attacked her," said Culver.

Police say Thompson was arrested for attacking the woman as she walked down Clinton Avenue near a home where Thompson's late father once lived. It's an empty house that is now for sale.

"This was a seemingly random attack. We don't know if this was a person he was looking for or this was a mistaken identity," said Captain Bisa French of the Richmond Police Department.

Police say the victim ran out of gas and was walking down the sidewalk when she was attacked by a man wearing a mask. The suspect smashed the car and hit the woman with the baseball bat.

"A witness described a male with a mask and a baseball bat walking to that vehicle and they later discovered the mask on the floor board of the vehicle and the bat in the trunk of the car," said Capt. French.

The Richmond neighbor says she has police officers in her family.

"And I would say 90 percent of all police officers out there are wonderful, amazing men and women who are trying to protect and do what's right," said Culver.

Thompson is now on paid administrative leave. There was no answer at Thompson's Martinez home and his attorney had no comment.